Return Of The Toads

November 30, 1985

TORONTO — At first there were only nine. The rare Puerto Rican toads, which have a bony crest on their foreheads, were brought to the Metropolitan Toronto Zoo in the hope that the wilderness environment would encourage them to mate. They did. Now about 2,300 of them, including some tadpoles, are going back to their native land. In 1976 Puerto Rican officials thought the toads were extinct. Fittingly enough, nine of the amphibians will remain in Toronto.